Are prices of niche getting out of hand?

The whole niche culture is losing its content. Armani started the viral exclusivity take-over with his wood and pebble niche line.

My responses to the high prices:

Floris Santal 1.7oz - $32
Carlos Santana 3.3oz - $20
Carven Homme 1.7oz - $10
John Varvatos 3.3oz - $25
Bogart Witness 1oz - $10

I love a bargain........

Some people want to pay more for niche scents. It makes them feel more special.

I think the prices are a bit excessive. I just recently bought a couple niche fragrances, most being run-offs of the big Montale sale. I don't see myself ever paying what they ask for them in the US, $210 for a 3.4oz bottle of Aoud compared to $140 from Paris directly? Yeah, I think I know which one I'll go with. It's pretty ridiculous in my opinion that there are such huge price discrepancies between the Paris store and the US. Oh well, Montale will be getting my money directly.

Here's a refreshing change. I was just shopping around on-line and discovered that the newly designed MPG bottles are 100 ml instead of the previous 90 ml, but are still $110. Woo hoo! Hopefully that's not an oversight or a price increase waiting to happen. To put things into perspective, that makes the MPG fragrances exactly half the price of Serge Lutens.

Inflation is rampant. Various categories of products seem to escalate all at once to catch up to the inflation that already occurred in other areas. Home prices rose first, then imported products from Europe such as shoes, clothing, and also fragrance. The dollar has fallen in value against the Euro creating price escalation if paying in $$. Fragrance will continue to rise in value as commodites grow in value versus currency value - especially the $$.

Buzzlepuff is right. In regards to retail perfumes, prices are up all around. I remember a few years back being able to get a really nice scent for about $40 with tax. Now it is around $60. Hell, they were trying to sell me a bottle of Kouros at the Bay for about $70!!

Now, if that is where retail "designer" scents are, what about niche?

On a slightly different note, this is one of the greatest reasons why I make my purchases almost exclusively online. Even with elevated prices, places like scentiments and others really come through. Heck, why pay $300 for a 120mL of Creed at Holt Renfrew when I can get one through scentiments for $110?

Perhaps online stores are doing for the perfume market what downloading songs did for the record store.

I feel like designer scents are more expensive than few years ago. And thn started producing 90ml or 80ml bottles.
It's great that we can still spot some great frags in Tj Maxx or Perfumania or online, but the bargain prices may also go up as the department store prices increase.
Last few months in European airports in duty free sections many scents had 45-60 Euro price tag, which is $80-90. Are those really discounted duty free prices?

As the old saying goes, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Guess who's driving up prices?

As was mentioned earlier, it's the low dollar vs. the euro.

And, I have to politely disagree with KO... Thank God for the rich. Think about it.


Dan

One of the reasons I haven't bought a Serge Lutens yet is that I set a limit of under $200 for 100 ml for myself and at $110 for 50 ml, he's over. And really, why should a fragrance ever be that expensive unless it has something incredibly rare in it (which I'm sure the SL ones don't)?

Not all niche went over the top

Crabtree and Evelyn - Floris - etc.... still price very well

But what make me laugh is the regular houses 50ml bottles at £35.00 that makes a 100ml worth £70.00 which is over priced


within the niche market - philosophy - image and price is another game

Yes why would a bottle of Creed or MPG cost more than a bottle of Artisan ?????

I think like cosmetics etc.... is the target of the HOUSE what customer - what purse etc...

Everything has been looked at - where to advertise etc... to reach the right purse.

Then the packaging - the bottle etc,,,,, makes the difference too

A good exemple is L'oreal cosmetic which are in the cheaper side is packed simply and can be found in regular supermarket/chemist

A few fancy ingredients and packaging and you are La Prairie etc.....

It's all about conspicuous consumption, snobbery, and exclusivity. No use of natural ingredients available to any perfumer with a hint of conscience could justify such high prices for a commercial scent, after all; what the extra money buys isn't rare ingredients or even skillful blending, but bragging rights because your perfume is more expensive than anyone else's.

Same deal as $200 jeans, really.

True indeed, Eric, but I guess it's all in the fact that there are plenty of people willing to put down that price even if it's not really worth it. More and more are seeking special fragrances, want to have limited editions, wish to feel exclusive, etc. Some folks will put down a grand for a piece of plastic if it's got the right name on it. Clearly certain niche brands are happy to jump in and raise their prices, but so do designers coming out with high-end lines.

Maybe a lot of it is part of a hype too, there are the hot and happening houses that get a lot of attention for a while and use this opportunity to cash in, but there are also classics like L'Artisan who don't really work like that. Either way, I'm afraid prices will keep going up quite a bit in the future.

Niches do have sick prices.

Still they sell probably enough as some rich guy doesn't want his not-so-rich neighbour to smell exactly like him.

i wouldn't say so. I don't really buy that many niche because it's just too much for a simple college student. And it would please me if the prices for niches went down. However, the prices aren't really that outrageous. If you look at the prices of a Gant sweater or an Etro tie, a bottle of MPG, Montale, or Tom Ford is fairly relatively inexpensive. It's the high life and whether or not the fragrances are actually worth the money I don't know but I know I can't afford it.

Another comment I would like to add to this thread: If a niche scent costs $150+ for a bottle, it had damned well better smell unlike anything else out there before it. That is one of the reasons I have been hesitant to try to Bond No. 9 house.

I disagree with pretty much everyone here! In my view fragrances are priced way too cheap. It is the fact that they are priced too cheap that keeps driving the trend to discontinue or reformulate really high quality fragrances that have costly ingredients.

Thirty years ago a guy could afford maybe one cologne, and it was a luxury item. If you were to alter the cost then for inflation it's price now would be more than the price of a niche. It's because consumers are not prepared to pay a lot for fragrances, compared to what they once paid, that means that we are now awash in ten thousand low quality, low cost fragrances. (Some of which are very good, I might add.)

There needs to be new price point for high quality products.

(Of course this does not mean that every niche must be worth the price that they are charging I'm sure most are not.)

. . .And we don't often get to 'test drive' the products we hear such raves about, do we? That's another factor.

I would wear Amouage Gold--if someone paid me 170 euros daily to do so.

Cheers,

Mario

I told a mate I bought a fragrance for £45, and he freaked out - Youre paying for water. I was embarrassed and didnt know what to say to justify my spend. It however got me thinking.

Effectively, we ARE paying for water. Whatever they put in it; when it comes down to the crunch its more than likely made mostly from water. Hell, were all practically water.

So why is it so expensive? I guess you could argue the special ingredients added. However the fragrance market isnt exactly niche. Its a big industry, where the big and medium businesses can benefit from economics of scale, mainly benefiting from bulk buying to reduce costs per ingredient. If you can buy it the store, I believe the company is big enough to benefit and theres a whole load of brands in the shops now. Its not like they put gold in it... not even silver.

How about the manufacturying costs? Like I said, they could be manufacturing in one factory (for the small houses) or several worldwide. If they arent using machines, they can outsource to cheaper labour countries such as India. All businesses do this, its normal for modern countries now. I will add, whether they distil fragrances, use special blending techniques, or keep it marinating for years. Its not the most complex process, or money hungry.

You could be perhaps paying for the name. Chanel for instance. Yes I agree with you who agree.

Finally and I feel this is the most likely cause for charging big bucks (or pounds for us), is the fact that if it cost less you wouldnt buy it. Psychiatrists for instance charge phenomenal amounts of money (not from experience I might add). But imagine if you went (yes I mean it) and the person charged 20$ or £10 for the session. Youd question the content and the persons ability to help. You may think he/shes not professional/experienced/good enough, and may change to his colleague who charges over a hundred, or more. You may feel that if youre going to get the job done, you may as well get it done right. Right?

I may be ignorant, and have got all my thoughts wrong. There may be more to it. Or I might be stupid, or just incorrect in any way.

To be honest, Im not too bothered even though it sounds like I have a big grudge against the industry. I dont.
1) I like fragrances
2) Ill buy fragrances
Simple as.

I just hope my degree will enable me to earn, and spend more on sexy water. Anyway, just some thoughts

particularly with niche houses who use good quality ingrediants, costs can be quite large. also, fragrance has always been a 'luxury' item. the way i see the market now, if you want something good and cheap it's there for you, if not you can pay some pretty high prices. either way, it's all good.

I was thinking about this the other day. What is the per pound (16oz) cost of the actual PERFUME. Well, let's assume the average EdT is 10% fragrance, and 90% inert ingredients.

So, my 3.4 ounce bottle of Prada that I just bought was approx $70. Of course, only 10% of that is actually fragrance. So, 0.34 ounces of fragrance cost me $70.

Now, to figure the per pound cost, we divide 16/0.34 and multiple that by 70.

16/.34 = 47.06
47.06 * 70 = $3294.2

Almost $3300 a pound. Wow.

Pricing of luxury products is not undertaken through Cost Plus pricing...Under Cost plus pricing mechanism the final price of a product is a function of the costs incurred in the manufacturing of a product.

The fragrance pricing is certainly not influenced a lot by the raw material costs incurred in manufacturing them. Instead its the placement of the brand that determines its price. The target audience is selected and the brand is then promoted to appeal to this niche clientale.

I dont think Chanel perfumes cost more to make is why they price their products higher than lets say YSL. There may be a slight variation in the cost, however its the target audience and the brand positioning that ultimately guides the pricing. I am sure if Chanel's were not priced as they are now, it wouldnt be an aspirational brand for most people who look forward to buy it and flaunt that they have bought it.

Its a race that most fragrance companies have gotten themselves into and with the increasing disposable incomes of the consumers, the companies are getting to price their products at their own discretion. However one must also not forget that due to insanely high marketing and advertisement costs a major part of their revenues may be going towards meeting these costs.

I think one can conclude that increase in fragrance prices has surely been at a much faster pace than the rate of increase in their costs.

gupts

You are paying not just for the ingredients of the fragrance. I feel that you are paying also for the skill and artistry of the fragrance creation. It is like buying designer clothes, the materials are not necessarily more expensive but you are paying for the whole artistic creation and the image of the name.

If you were to buy an expensive painting, you are not just paying for the paint and paper.

---

I have been thinking about it for ages. Sometimes this thought bothers me a lot. But most of the time, when the bottles were in my sight, and their smells reached my olfactory perception, that thought vanished.

I want to mention that in some countries where taxes are high, average designer fragrances cost well over $100. No discounts. So sometimes, the local taxes and sellers' interest drives the prices more than the cost of the product.